18 janvier 2007

...The Forum will also address many of the same threats to global welfare from previous years, from climate change to terrorism and energy security to bird flu. Stars will be less conspicuous than in previous years. Bono is back, as is Peter Gabriel, but there will be no Angelina Jolie or Sharon Stone...

The world's elite will hold discussions on climate change and the Middle East next week at their annual rendezvous in the chic Swiss ski resort of Davos, this time with few distractions from Hollywood stars...We do not need such (show business) invitations," said Klaus Schwab. "This year it happens to be just Bono and Peter Gabriel, and I think it's right."...

Finland may seem like a long way away from the mystical world of Middle-earth, the land created by J.R.R. Tolkien in "The Lord of the Rings," but the country's folk music apparently sounds just like the sort of jams Frodo and Co. would shake a hairy toe to — at least the way Varttina plays it.

The 23-year-old band, led by singers Susan Aho, Mari Kaasinen and Johanna Virtanen and bouzouki player and saxophonist Janne Lappalainen, was pegged to contribute to the soundtrack to the stage version of "The Lord of the Rings," which debuted in Toronto last year and is slated for Broadway in 2007.

"A couple of producers from the show were looking for interesting sounds, and they were going through a big stack of world music records, and, just by chance, they came up with our 'Ilmatar' album, and they felt it would be ideal for the show," said Lappalainen by phone from Finland.

Varttina was composing music for "Rings" as it was recording its new CD, "Miero," the group's first for Peter Gabriel's Real Worldlabel, and Tolkien's world affected the sound of the nine-piece band.

"The original idea was to make a kind of darker, more sinister record than the records we had done,"Lappalainen said. "We had done such happy, up-tempo music, and we wanted to do something different from that, mostly lyrically."

The band got its start and made its name by reviving Finnish folk songs, but over the past few years Varttina has moved away from traditional music. "Miero" features 13 original songs, and while the music is still built around luminous Finno-Urgic female singing traditions, Varttina's string instrument and accordion-based songs incorporate a wide range of influences, from jazz to rock to classical.

"The band has existed for such a long time that it needs to evolve, it needs to go forward,"Lappalainen said. "We need to keep creating new things, and it feels like a very natural thing to start composing original music for the band. It makes the music more personal when you're playing your own tunes rather than singing the traditional stuff."

Peter Gabriel's eclectic record label, Real World, is delighted to present it's first Scottish showcase. This represents an exciting new direction for Celtic Connections, as the festival seeks to share common ground and forge fresh new links between the folk and world music scenes.

In this one-off event Real World brings uplifting voices, superlative musicianship, dub-heavy grooves and irresistible rhythms from West Africa to Central Asia, from London to Ohio - a truly global celebration, bursting with talent.

The legendary blues-and-beyond guitarist Skip McDonald, aka Little Axe, will be joined by the renowned rhythm section of Doug Wimbish and Keith LeBlanc (Sugarhill Gang, Tackhead) with Bernard Fowler (Tackhead, Rolling Stones) on vocals. They will be joined by production maestro Adrian Sherwood, of On-U Sound Records, who as well as producing their current album, Stone Cold Ohio, will also perform his own live sound-system.

Other special guests include the latest incarnation of pioneering Asian fusioneers Joi and the young Mauritanian singer-songwriter Daby Touré who has been described as an African Cat Stevens or Nick Drake. Also flying in is the gorgeous, vibrant Sevara Nazarkhan - Uzbekistan's ravishing young star and winner of a BBC Radio 3 World Music Award.

We will not be forgetting the much loved, much missed Martyn Bennett and will be paying tribute to his special legacy to Scottish music.

15 janvier 2007

Hassan Hakmoun on the sintir, playing music with African and Sufi Muslim influences, on Saturday night at Symphony Space.

Stomping With Sintirs as a Route to Trance

In the highlight of the Hassan Hakmoun show at Symphony Space on Saturday night, the Moroccan-born Hakmoun brothers had a gnawa dance-off. AbderRahim Hakmoun, dressed in an orange tunic and a bejeweled, fezlike hat, spun its tassel like a helicopter propeller, smacking his bare feet on the stage in a complex pattern. Hassan Hakmoun, playing a sintir (a three-stringed, wood and camel-skin lute), matched his younger brother’s furious rhythm, whipping around his long, reddish dreadlocks.“This is a traditional African foot stomp,” Hassan Hakmoun said, describing it as the root of American tap dance. As the duo got low to the ground and shook their hips and shoulders, their moves suggested a clear line to more modern styles, too, from stepping to krumping. The dance was mesmerizing, but it was also apparently painful.

“Next song,” Hassan Hakmoun said, “we’re going to wear shoes because living here in America for so long, we don’t have African feet anymore.” He laughed. “And medical care is too expensive.”

His music, gnawa trance, is hypnotic devotional music with African and Sufi Muslim influences. Brought to the region by West African slaves and traders, it’s heavily rhythmic, built around drums, qaraqebs (metal castanets), hand claps and the sintir, which is both thumped and strummed.

Gnawa is designed to bring listeners into a mystical, trancelike state; songs often start with a slow, mournful vocal and sintir introduction, then gradually speed up until they are frantically, heart-poundingly fast. In derdeba ceremonies, gnawa music and dancing are often used to drive out evil spirits (when someone is sick or troubled) or to honor beneficial spirits (when someone is exceptionally well).

Gnawa groups play at Marrakesh’s Jamaa el F’Na, a large square where tourists flock for photo-ops with snake charmers and surly monkeys. That’s where Hassan Hakmoun, the son of a Berber healer, started playing as a boy. Now he is a m’allem (a master musician or band leader) and a New Yorker, well known in the West for his work withPeter Gabriel, Kronos Quartet and Pharoah Sanders.

On Saturday, Mr. Hakmoun had the charisma of a rock star, theatrically thrusting around his sintir and singing huskily with an ecstatic expression. He sang call-and-response with his qaraqeb-shaking brother, who earned cheers for his acrobatic leaps during “Moussaoui.”

The set included traditional derdeba songs, with stunningly complicated polyrhythms by the percussionists Brahim Fribgane and Ron McBee.

While introducing “Challaban,” Mr. Hakmoun said: “This is a very, very spiritual and peaceful song. You have to follow the drums. You have to be the drums.” The crowd clapped along as instructed, but the results weren’t exactly rousing. Music this rapturous is better appreciated in a less formal setting, where people could try some (probably painfully awkward) trance-dancing and the band could feed off the energy. The show was simultaneously enthralling and academic.

Mr. Hakmoun ended it with “Maaboud Allah” and a sweaty dance of twirls and kicks. Then he dropped to his knees for a lengthy spotlight turn — like the Eddie Van Halen of the sintir.

...Celtic Connections 2007 sees a substantial increase in artists from the contemporary Americana scene, including major figures such as Rosanne Cash, Bela Fleck, Mary ChapinCarpenter and Cowboy Junkies, plus a wealth of newer acts, many making their Scottish debut. Perhaps more controversial, though, is Shaw's decision to embrace world music under the festival's already capacious umbrella. Key highlights here include the Real World night, curated by Peter Gabriel's celebrated label and featuring artists from Africa, Uzbekistan and the Asian underground scene. Then there's the Burns Mela, an Asian-themed extravaganza in honour of the national bard, and Flutes Of The World, both of which feature the legendary North Indian flute virtuoso Hariprasad Chaurasia.

"I know some people might see this as stretching things too far," he says, "but I've always been a big advocate of the idea that Celtic music is world music, too, in the same way that Real World see no contradiction in signing Scottish artists like Martyn Bennett and the Afro Celts. Conversely, in the case of someone like Hariprasad Chaurasia, first and foremost he's just one of the most gifted, emotive and soulful flute players you'll ever hear, but he's also been a major influence on Irish and Breton players.

"And if we were having a heated cultural discussion about it, there's plenty of historical evidence that the Celts travelled as far as North Africa and even India, so you could point to a connection there. "There are also really fascinating similarities between aspects of African and Gaelic music, particularly in the rhythms and melodies of their work songs, and also in the language. In Mali, for instance, some of their tribal words for elemental things like moon', sun', river', land' and boat' are almost phonetically identical to Gaelic: nobody really knows why, but I like to think there's some ancient ancestral link involved."...